septuagenarian
Gareth M. Evans
In article <3fgfim$t...@sentinel.synapse.net> cap...@koolaid.synapse.net (James Scriven) writes:
James> I recently came accross this interesting word (septuagenarian)
James> that I found rather interesting. I means 'a person between the
James> ages of 70 and 79.
James> Does anyone know the rest of the words in this category? ie,
James> 20-29, 30-39, etc.
James> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
James> Thanks
James> -Jim
Generally they are not used below 60 and are based on the latin number
system
(pentagenarian?)
hexagenarian
septugenarian
octagenarian
nonagenarian
?
Gaz
--
---
Gareth M. Evans, TEL: +44 1223 428245
Tadpole Technology PLC, FAX: +44 1223 428201
Cambridge Science Park, EMAIL: g...@tadpole.co.uk
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CB4 4WQ.
---
John Davies
>
>I recently came accross this interesting word (septuagenarian) that I
>found rather interesting. I means 'a person between the ages of 70 and
>79.
>
>Does anyone know the rest of the words in this category? ie, 20-29,
>30-39, etc.
sexagenarian, octogenarian & nonagenarian are the only others in common
usage, apart from teenager & centenarian which have a slightly different
provenance. Someone may have tried to construct others - it would not
be difficult - but I guess the years from 20 to 59 are too unremarkable
to require a special terminology.
On a distantly-related matter, anyone got a view on when one becomes
middle aged? Is there a gap between being middle aged and being elderly?
Keith Ivey
: Does anyone know the rest of the words in this category? ie, 20-29,
: 30-39, etc.
These words are listed in the OED (1st ed.), though the
definitions differ slightly:
quadragenarian: person whose age is in the 40s
quinquagenarian: ... 50s
sexagenarian: ... 60s
septuagenarian: ... 70s
octogenarian: ... 80s
nonagenarian: ... 90s
centenarian: person whose age is 100 or higher
(I've never run across the first two, which are not listed in
Webster's Ninth New Collegiate.)
They are derived from the distributive forms of the Latin words
for numbers. For example, "quadrageni" means "forty each" or
"by forties". Using the distributive forms for 10, 20, and 30,
the series could be extended downward as follows:
denarian: person whose age is between 10 and 19, inclusive
vicenarian: person whose age is in the 20s
tricenarian: person whose age is in the 30s
But these aren't listed in any dictionary, as far as I know.
--Keith Ivey <kci...@cpcug.org>
Washington, DC
Ian Ellis
Subject: septuagenarian
C-> I recently came accross this interesting word (septuagenarian) that I
C-> found rather interesting. I means 'a person between the ages of 70 and
C-> 79.
C-> Does anyone know the rest of the words in this category? ie, 20-29,
C-> 30-39, etc.
Didn't find those, but did find:
Latin roots:
40 quadragenarian
50 quinquagenarian
60-69 sexagenarian
70-79 septagenarian
80-89 octagenarian
90-100 nonagenarian
While looking for these in Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary,
I also came across:
duodenary - relating to 12, twelvefold.
and, even more interestingly:
duodenum - the first portion of the small intestines, so called because
about 12 fingers'-breadth in length.
Pascal MacProgrammer
>I recently came accross this interesting word (septuagenarian) that I
>found rather interesting. I means 'a person between the ages of 70
>and 79'.
>Does anyone know the rest of the words in this category? ie, 20-29,
>30-39, etc.
I don't recall having seen the word "sexagenarian" for a person in his
sixties, but "octagenarian" and "nonagenarian" are rather common. And I
think "centagenarian" is anyone over 100.
--
==----= Steve MacGregor
([.] [.]) Phoenix, AZ
--------------------------oOOo--(_)--oOOo---------------------------------
"A tautology is a tautology" is a tautology.
Pierre Jelenc
Keith Ivey <kci...@cpcug.digex.net> wrote:
>James Scriven (cap...@koolaid.synapse.net) wrote:
>: Does anyone know the rest of the words in this category? ie, 20-29,
>: 30-39, etc.
>
>These words are listed in the OED (1st ed.), though the
>definitions differ slightly:
>
> quadragenarian: person whose age is in the 40s
> quinquagenarian: ... 50s
>(I've never run across the first two, which are not listed in
>Webster's Ninth New Collegiate.)
"Quadrage'naire" and "quinquage'naire" are relatively common in French.
Pierre
--
Pierre Jelenc Being politically correct means always having
rc...@panix.com to say you're sorry.
Charles Osgood
http://www.columbia.edu/~pcj1/
Ellen Rosen
: 1. Middle age is your own age plus ten years; ask a teenager and a 50yr.
: old.--
: 2. Elderly is that age midway between your own and 100.
: Nyal Z. Williams
: 00nzwi...@bsuvc.bsu.edu
Thank you for alleviating one of my greatest fears. I shan't have to worry
about becoming middle-aged until I'm 79! :-)
--
Ellen Rosen
e...@netcom.com
Rachel Kadel
Bob Cunningham <ad...@lafn.org> wrote:
>
> Now, the obvious question is: how about those who are between 0 and
>9, inclusive? Can someone coin a term for them?
>
Little kids. (Not within the earshot of the older ones of them,
though!) :)
> This thread reminds me of one that arose in another forum. It
>started with my question: if a person between one and two years of age is
>a one-year-old, and a person between two and three years of ages is a
>two-year-old, what is the corresponding term for a person between zero
>and one year old, a "zero-year-old"?
>
Well, parents and usually refer to the age in hours until the baby's a
bit more than one day old, then days, weeks, months. The use of years
doesn't really set in until about two.
> If I remember correctly, someone from the insurance industry
>chipped in with the information that "zero-year-old" is indeed used in
>that industry.
>
How odd. Symptom of heartlessness.
> Also, someone commented that in certain English-speaking
>communities, a person between zero and one is called an infant. _The
>Random House Dictionary of the English Language Second Edition
>Unabridged_ says, however, that "infant" refers to a person who has not
>yet learned to walk, or in "Law" a person who is under 18 years of age.
>
Whoa -- in "Law", somebody just short of my age is an *infant*?? Catch
somebody calling a five-year-old that to his face -- he'd probably get
kicked in the shins. :)
Seriously, though, in my idiolect, infant runs about up to age 1, baby
runs up to maybe age 2, and toddler starts at 1 or 1 1/2 and runs till
somewhere short of 3. Infants usually can't walk, toddlers can but aren't
potty-trained, and babies mostly can't talk particularly reliably. Nor post
to usenet.
(Yes, I know, you're looking for the age to be embedded in the word, but
what the hay.)
>
>Bob Cunningham, Northridge, California, USA (a septuagenarian)
>
>E-mail: bob.cun...@mogur.com
Rachel Meredith Kadel, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (a college kid)
--
Why are you quantizing my cookies?
Rachel Meredith Kadel or, for the adventurously inclined, Bean-na-Sidhe
rka...@fas.harvard.edu
John Davies
>
>Middle age is when you fancy both mother and daughter. Elderly is when you
>fancy Granny as well. But what is the term for when you have forgotten what
>all the fuss was about ?
>
>Tony Chabot
>
Dead
John Davies
Mark Israel
When you're 16, old age is 40. When you're 36, old age is 60. And
when you're 100, it doesn't matter.
--
mis...@scripps.edu Mark Israel